Election Roundup: Sunday

As the dust settles on another round of elections, we wanted to thank all of you who voted for a Liberal Democrat candidate. We really appreciate it.

With Covid19 necessitating more precautions at counts the results of Thursdays elections have been dribbling in over the past 48 hours. The Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner results will be announced on Monday, but we wanted to do a quick overview of what has been going on across the UK and in Wiltshire.

Liberal Democrat have had some great early wins:

• We have gained majority control of St Albans City and District Council.
• We made gains in Cambridgeshire and Tunbridge Wells, taking away the Conservatives' majorities on those councils. And more gains from the Conservatives in Surrey, Wiltshire Essex, Wokingham, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Shropshire, and Devon.
• We held Orkney, Shetland, Edinburgh Western and North East Fife - re-electing four great MSPs.
• Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds won in Mid and West Wales.
• We made gains from Labour in Sunderland, Liverpool, Hull, Sheffield, Rotherham, and Barnsley.
• We became the largest party on Stockport council and held our councils in Watford, Winchester, Eastleigh, Three Rivers and Cheltenham.
• Liberal Democrats gained a seat on the Greater London Assembly.
• In Chesham and Amersham, where there is an upcoming parliamentary by-election, Liberal Democrats finished a strong second to the Conservatives. In Amersham Lib Dems went from 0 seats to a majority on the Town Council.

Across Wiltshire

In Wiltshire, the Conservatives will continue to dominate the Unitary Council, but the reality is that across Wiltshire, Liberal Democrats have made some significant gains on the 2017 election and have gained 6 seats taking our total to 27. Over 42,500 people voted for us giving local Lib Dems around 28% of the vote share.

In South West Wiltshire local Lib Dems took Trowbridge Grove and Tisbury from the Conservatives and consolidated our holding on the 2019 by-election win in Trowbridge Lambrok.

Sadly, though we lost the Wiltshire Council seat by a small margin, won in a previous 2019 by-election in Trowbridge Drynham to the Conservative candidate. However, Cllr Andrew Bryant remains a councillor and has been re-elected to Trowbridge Town Council to serve Drynham ward alongside Cllr Denise Bates.

Trowbridge, also saw the Liberal Democrats take resounding control of Trowbridge Town Council with resounding 14 Lib Dem Majority reducing the Conservatives to 6 and 1 Independent (2017 figures were 9 Lib Dems, 10 Conservatives, 1 Labour and 1 Independent).

In Westbury, two of the three Westbury seats remain in Lib Dem hands and we are committed to amplifying the voice of Westbury as the town grapples with the Incinerator planning application and the need for a bypass. we have made some significant gains. The third seat Westbury West was gained by Independent Matthew Dean, a former Conservative Councillor.

In the South of the constituency, taking the Tisbury seat from the Conservatives was a significant gain. Nick Errington is now the Lib Dem Councillor for Wiltshire Council and he also sits on Tisbury Parish Council as an Independent (the Parish Council are all independents).

Nationally the party's projected vote share was around 18%, well above the opinion poll standings and broadly in line with that achieved when the seats were last fought four years ago. Across parts of the UK, we have held or taken seats, won control of councils such as St Albans and put a number more into no overall control. Given the hammering taken by the Labour Party and the bounce in Conservative fortunes associated with the feel-good factor of the vaccine roll-out we are content with that performance.

As the world and politics returns to greater normality the challenge for us as a party is to strongly campaign on the issues which matter to people. Going forward treading water will not be good enough.

If you are not a member but have liked what you have seen and heard from us over the past week's, please come and join us and help push us forward to better performance in the future. You can join by pressing here Join the Liberal Democrats (force.com)

Wiltshire Council results can be found here May 2021 Elections - Wiltshire Council